Fleeing indoors to escape the harsh weather buffeting the area, the Georgetown men’s and women’s track teams heated up the track with a slew of top-quality finishes. The teams put on a display as they traveled to the two-day Virginia Tech Indoor Invitational in Blacksburg, Va., held this past Friday and Saturday.

The men were led by sophomore Chris Lukezic who won the 1,000m run in 2:25.43. Junior Rod Koborsi turned in an equally impressive run with his win in the 3,000m race in 8:13.02. In the same race, fellow Hoya sophomore Fleet Hower was close behind his teammate, finishing fourth with a time of 8:20.79. Senior James Graham took home runner-up honors in the 800m with a time of 1:55.09. Graham later came back to run in the 1,600-meter relay with teammates sophomore Chris Bonner, senior Ezra Richards and freshman Kevin Ward. The team was challenged by Tennessee, but ultimately held off the challenge to grab the runner-up spot with the Volunteers in third.

“There were some nice breakthrough races by freshman where they stepped it up a bit,” Director of Track and Field Pat Helmer said. “Kevin Ward got the stick a few steps ahead of Tennessee and just fought the whole race and held him off until the finish to win their heat, but get second overall.”

Richards and Bonner also raced in the 500m run and captured fourth and fifth places with times of 1:04.28 and 1:04.29, respectively. Georgetown’s two distance medley relays finished first-second to cross the line in 10:05.57 and 10:07.98, respectively.

On the women’s side, senior Treniere Clement continued her impressive senior campaign as she captured the victory in the 3,000m run with a time of 9:35.31 and also added a strong 800m split in the 3,200-meter relay Senior Monica Hargrove ran 54.98 to claim fourth place in the 400m dash. Junior Sabine Knothe had a strong day as she turned in one of the top women’s performances with her fourth-place finish in the 1000m run in 2:54.60.

“Sabine has been running really well lately,” Helmer said.

Knothe added a fifth-place performance in the 800m run in 2:14.43. Both the 1,000m and 800m races were won by Georgetown alumni Katrina de Boer with her times of 2:50.73 and 2:09.78, respectively.

Senior Amanda Paper and sophomore Kim Malcolm ran seven-eight in the mile run with respective times of 5:00.69 and 5:00.78. The 3,200m relay ran to victory with their time of 9:05.86. The Hoyas 1,600-meter relay “B” team earned fifth-place honors with their time of 3:52.43.

“At this point in the season, we are still getting people going and we’re getting to a good point,” Helmer said. “We did run many distance medleys this weekend because I feel that we can have a great national-level relay come championship season since it is a national meet event.”